Another Mad Monday Celebration in the AFL, and more young men behaving badly.

This time it involved St Kilda’s Clint Jones, who’s apologised for setting a dwarf entertainer on fire. Excessive alcohol, well let’s hope that was the reason, again has a leading footballer in the crosshairs. What is it with these very well paid sports professionals? You’d also have to ask why on earth two of these entertainers were booked for an appearance? Who’s great idea was that? Unfortunately the litany of ugly alcohol fuelled incidents involving footballers of all codes is sadly an ever passing parade.

Rugby League perhaps receives the biggest wrap for alcohol induced mayhem. This year we’ve had the likes of Blake Ferguson, James Tamou, George Burgess, Ben Teo and Ben Barba to name a few in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, and all the result of too much booze. Rugby Union also has player problems, with Kurtley Beale’s among a number of others well documented.And just to show it’s not just a problem with the footballing codes, enter David Warner, who after an obviously well fuelled evening and early morning in a nightclub, decided if you couldn’t get Joe Root out on the field, you could at least try take him out in the nightclub.Very well paid young men living in a professional bubble, plenty of disposable money … a recipe for disaster? Should we be surpised?

Let’s take another look at it. For much of the year professional sports people live an extremely regimented life, putting a lot of time and effort into maintaining peak physical fitness. In the AFL and I’m sure other codes that means watching closely what they eat, often enduring a regimen instigated by the club dietician, they live or die by regular skinfold tests and all that latest scientific and medical equipment to constantly monitor their physical condition. There’s no place to hide.

For much of the year the players steer away from alcohol, and I suspect that any analysis of alcohol abuse comes from a very small percentage of the professional playing ranks. In other words a few bad apples tarnishing the many. Many professionals are also strongly involved in a plethora of charity work, but that doesn’t make the back pages, not much of a headline. Certainly doesn’t rate alongside “DRUNK FOOTBALLER CAUGHT URINATING IN CUSTOMERS PUMPKIN SOUP”!

So the main concerns are usually confined to Mad Monday, and end of season festivities and trips. Time to break out of the grind and discipline now the season is over. But when you analyse it further, footballers are no different to the bulk of the population their age. Go into the nightclub precinct of any city (if you dare). What will you see? A lot of young people, both male and female, who’ve had far too much to drink. Many have gone out with the intention of getting blind drunk. Out of control, getting involved in fights or worse.

A sad reflection on a significant section of our population.Footballers are a product of their environment, no different to others. But in these days of social media, mobile phones to take the snaps, and the celebrity status of most professional sports people little escapes scrutiny. They also form an easy target for anyone who’s judgement has been impaired by alcohol. I suspect that of the many thousands Australia wide who behave badly, the percentage of footballers behaving badly is miniscule.

That’s not to condone these episodes, but hey it’s a heck of a story if a star spends the night in a police lock-up. Joe Blogs from down the street, well forget it, that isn’t news.